Chalk rock from the Late Cretaceous with sponge spicules fossils trapped inside (in brown). This is a Tetractinellida sponge, some of which are today key players of sponge grounds

Chert rock from the late Jurassic, made from the accumulation of millions of Geodia sponge spicules

Looking at a section of this chert with an optical microscope, we can see that it is made of numerous ball-shaped Geodia spicules (made of silica)

These giant ammonites lived during the late Cretaceous, at the same time as well-known dinosaurs (Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Hadrosaurus, etc) but also some of the sponges we have examined!

A rich photogallery from the 2017 G.O. Sars research cruise – our researchers have studied very different deep-water sponge grounds, ranging from the 1300 m deep Norwegian fjords, the coral-associated grounds on the outer continental shelf, the Barents Sea, and to depths down to 3000 m along the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. Read the report here.

The G.O. Sars 2017 cruise is over – thanks everybody!!

The G.O. Sars research vessel

The G.O. Sars takes to the sea from Bergen, Norway

The Euronews troupe covers the Aegyr ROV

One of the cameras on the AEgyr ROV

The AEgyr ROV is equipped with lots of devices!

The long cable of the AEgyr ROV

The AEgyr ROV is ready for a dive!

… and back

The control room aboard the G.O. Sars

A rich deep-sea sponge ground, here in the Knipovich Ridge, seen from the control room

Operating incubation chambers for in-situ work is not easy…

… chambers are carefully deployed over deep-sea sponges …

… incubation chambers will stay in place for 8 h to understand now deep-sea sponges are involved in oceanic nutrient cycling

Once the rosette sampler is back onboard, deep-sea water can be retrieved…

The control room is always busy…

Snapshots from our participation to the three-day High-Level Ministerial and Scientific EventA New Era of Blue Enlightenment and culminating with the landmark signature of the Statement on Atlantic Research and Innovation Cooperation (Thursday 13th July, at Bélem Tower – Lisbon, Portugal), launching the South Atlantic Research and Innovation Flagship Initiative between the EU, Brazil and South Africa. Read the full story here.

A New Era of Blue Enlightenment

The Statement on Atlantic Research and Innovation Cooperation is being signed

Signatures on the Statement on Atlantic Research and Innovation Cooperation

Representatives of “sister projects” SponGES, ATLAS and MERCES at the event

Our Scientific Project Manager Joana Xavier about SponGES on Friday

Our Scientific Project Manager Joana Xavier about SponGES on Friday

A quote by Karmenu Villa on linkages between initiatives

The Bélem Tower, where the Statement was signed

SponGES at the 10th World Sponge Conference! (read short summary here, or check #WorldSponge10 on Twitter for more info).

cover of the 10th World Sponge Conference book of abstracts

Overview of the auditorium – talking deep-sea sponges!

Closing the 10th World Sponge Conference – see you in Bali!

Our coordinator Hans Tore Rapp talks about SponGES

Some more deep-sea sponges…

SponGES at thw 10th World Sponge Conference!

Taxonomy of glass sponges – the workshop

At the workshop on transatlantic cooperation for deep-sea research

How to pulverize a deep-sea sponge? This gallery shows Master student Patryk Nilsson (Uppsala University – Division of Pharmacognosy, have a look at the sponges’ natural products group site!) on his quest to explore secondary metabolites of Geodia hentscheli (this very specimen was sampled on the Schultz Massive Seamount in the Greenland Sea). It all culminated in the last picture: on the right the beautiful yellow extraction of G. hentscheli – on the left, other Master students made the same extraction for a different yet closely related sponge species, Geodia barretti. You can already see: different color = different chemistry. However, rewind: what was the first step to get there? Reduce the sponge into a fine, dry powder! Not really an easy task…

Patryk Nilsson cuts the frozen sponge into pieces

Geodia hentscheli sampled during a SponGES research cruise is put in a steel container to fit a larger blender

Result after blending! It’s sponge purée, or hummus 🙂

After freeze drying for a couple of days, here is a totally dry sponge powder. Its chemical compounds are ready to be extracted with a solvent!

The Autonomous Underwater Veichle (AUV) Hugin used by researchers of the EU SponGES project

Snapshots from the GO Sars

Samples being pre-processed

MSci life aboard GO Sars!

3rd International Workhop on the Taxonomy of Deep-Sea Sponges (June 2016) – read the announcement here!

Working hard in the lab!

Sunny day for a great group picture

The Centro Oceanográfico de Gijón (IEO)

Sponges from genera Aphrocallistes and Regardella

Sampling along the Swedish West coast (May 2016) – read the story here!

The Lovén Centre at Tjärnö (marine station) with the RV Nereus

The ROV bringing back some specimens of Geodia barretti

The team sampling the specimens on the ship

SponGES has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 679849
This website reflects only the authors' view and the EASME is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains